Sig Christenson is a veteran military reporter who has made nine trips to the war zone. He writes regularly for Hearst about service members, veterans and heroes, among other topics. He is also the co-founder and former president of Military Reporters and Editors, founded in 2002.

37th Training Group

04/08/2013

Five basic training instructors who were convicted in the Air Force's
worst sex scandal and got “hard labor” as part of their sentences were
assigned this chore: cleaning kennels at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland
that are home to 800 military working dogs.

Hard labor conjures
images of sweaty prisoners in chains busting rocks with sledgehammers,
and back in the day it likely happened. But hard labor is far different
today than half a century ago and even now isn't clearly defined by
military law.

“The tasks assigned are not something created solely
as a form of punishment, and under no circumstances can they be
designed to degrade or humiliate someone,” said Col. Mark Camerer, commander of Lackland's 37th Training Wing.

“On
the contrary, hard labor is typically performed in and around the
workplace, and is most frequently used to complete tasks that help a
unit complete its mission,” he said.

Hard labor is a vague term
that can confuse military judges, lawyers and commanders. Military law
doesn't spell out what tasks are legal but cautions that hard labor
cannot be cruel and unusual punishment.

Observers point to the law
and note that it is punishment and meant to be physical, tiring out the
convict. These days, it can be mowing the lawn, cleaning toilets,
mopping floors, policing kennels and painting everything from walls to,
yes, rocks.

It's also meant to be a deterrent by ensuring that
troops are punished in a highly public way, but one former top military
lawyer says commanders often avoided it.

“I can recall we would
have somebody painting the guard shack at the front gate, something
visible. But they had to come up with the duties, they had to get the
supplies, somebody had to supervise the individual,” said retired Air
Force Col. Morris Davis,
who oversaw the service's justice system in 2007 and 2008. “I think
generally most units found it was more a punishment on them than on the
individual.”

Several of the convicted Lackland trainers were given
30 days' hard labor. Once their jail time has been served, the law
requires those instructors to work every day of their hard-labor
sentence.

So far, the Air Force has investigated 33 basic training
instructors on allegations of misconduct with 63 recruits and technical
school trainees, all but four of them women. Fourteen cases have gone
to trial in the past year, with another one scheduled to begin this
week.

The longest hard-labor requirement was given to Staff Sgt. Donald Davis,
who must complete three months of hard labor for having sex with a
technical school student. Three months is the most allowed by law.

There's a long and colorful history behind the punishment, which goes back to 16th-century England.

London's
city government took a royal palace in 1557 and used it as a
correctional facility that forced convicts to perform “useful labor” in
hopes of helping them develop a work ethic.

01/10/2013

The Air Force said Wednesday it plans to move its training hub for airmen who direct airstrikes in combat to San Antonio.

The Tactical Air Control Party and the Air Liaison Officer training school are expected to begin operations at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland late next year.

Lackland was considered the more economical choice after the Air
Force looked for a place that could graduate more airmen in a career
field that long has been stressed by two wars.

Throughout the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, officers who command the close air-support teams have been in short supply and forced to

repeatedly deploy — one reason why the service wants to shift training to San Antonio, where graduates will rise by a third.

Now at Hurlburt Field in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., the 19-week TACP
apprentice training course produces about 270 graduates a year, but the
Air Force wants to increase that number by 100, said Collen McGee, Lackland spokeswoman.

The school also will have 65 instructors permanently assigned to the base.

The Air Force gave three reasons for moving the school. It said
Lackland is preferred over Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Miss., because it has
fewer “black flag” days, when training operations are suspended due to
heat and humidity.

“There are shorter commute times to the training location here and
the estimated bed-down costs are approximately $1 million less
expensive,” McGee added.

An environmental assessment must be done before the action is final.

Col. Mark Camerer,
commander of Lackland's 37th Training Wing, said Air Force leaders
would hand down a final decision after the review is completed this
fall.

09/26/2012

Col. Deborah Liddick
took command Friday of an Air Force basic-training program tainted by a
sex scandal involving 18 instructors and dozens of women.

The
ceremony on the parade field at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland put the
spotlight on the Air Force's decision to place a woman in charge of the
737th Training Group, but her new boss said she didn't get the job because of her gender.

“Col. Liddick was the best-qualified officer that I think I could have made a recommendation for,” Col. Mark Camerer, commander of the 37th Training Wing, told the San Antonio Express-News.

“She's
a former commander, she has experience in command leading airmen, and
that's what I wanted,” he added, calling her “an experienced, decent
commander who could deal with this situation.”

Standing before a crowd of 3,500, Camerer handed the group's flag to Liddick in an assumption-of-command ceremony.

In
a short speech, Liddick told those in the Air Force's largest training
group “to focus on the mission, to transform civilians into motivated,
world-class airmen.”

“We need to continually instill pride and
demonstrate respect for each other,” she told the crowd, and called on
the airmen “to live the core values – integrity first, service before
self, excellence in all we do.”

Liddick made no mention of the
scandal in her four-minute speech, but both she and Camerer, who
oversees basic and technical training, are part of a sweeping leadership
change.

Replacing a pair of colonels who left after relatively
short stints, they were brought here to transform training in the wake
of the scandal, one of the worst in the U.S. military history.

Col. Deborah Liddick took command Friday of an Air Force basic-training program tainted by a sex scandal involving 18 instructors and dozens of women.

The ceremony on the parade field at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland put the spotlight on the Air Force's decision to place a woman in charge of the 737th Training Group, but her new boss said she didn't get the job because of her gender.

“Col. Liddick was the best-qualified officer that I think I could have made a recommendation for,” Col. Mark Camerer, commander of the 37th Training Wing, told the San Antonio Express-News.

“She's a former commander, she has experience in command leading airmen, and that's what I wanted,” he added, calling her “an experienced, seasoned commander who could deal with this situation.”

Standing before a crowd of 3,500, Camerer handed the group's flag to Liddick in an assumption-of-command ceremony.

In a short speech, Liddick told those in the Air Force's largest training group “to focus on the mission, to transform civilians into motivated, world-class airmen.”
Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/military/article/Woman-now-heads-AF-training-3883461.php#ixzz2H4QumzWC

09/18/2012

As the Air Force seeks to manage the largest sex scandal in its
history, the selection of a woman to take charge of basic training at
Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland drew praise as well as caution from
observers Monday.

The appointment Saturday of Col. Deborah Liddick as commander of the 737th Training Group
was a good start, experts agreed, but many more women need to come on
board a basic training program reeling from accusations of misconduct
against 18 instructors. At least 42 women have been identified as
victims.

Liddick's appointment comes amid a shake-up of the top ranks at
Lackland. Liddick, who currently is chief of Joint Base San
Antonio-Randolph's maintenance division, will take over the training
group Friday, a little more than a month after the previous commander,
Col. Glenn Palmer, was abruptly ousted over lack of confidence in his leadership.

A higher-level commander, Col. Eric Axelbank, who led the 37th Training Wing, abruptly stepped down this month after a little more than a year on the job.

“Seeing a female in charge, someone female trainees can identify with
at least on the surface, may help change the ‘keep quiet or suffer the
consequences' perception that exists in the basic training environment,”
said retired Air Force Col. Morris Davis, who led a 2003 investigation into a sex scandal at the Air Force Academy.

“On the other hand, there was a female colonel in a senior command
position at the Air Force Academy when the sexual assault scandal
occurred in 2003, and cadets viewed her as being a significant part of
the problem,” he added. “At the end of the day, it's performance, not
perception, that really matters, so we'll have to wait and see how Col.
Liddick does.”

09/05/2012

After a little more than a year on the job, Air Force Col. Eric Axelbank stepped down Tuesday as head of a training wing here that has been rocked by a growing sex scandal.

He handed command of the 37th Training Wing to Col. Mark Camerer during a ceremony on Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland that was uncharacteristically closed to the media.

The Air Force has said it is making leadership changes to help implement new guidelines for training. Axelbank's exit has been described as routine, while two other Lackland officers lost their jobs, but one critic said new people aren't enough to fix what she calls a broken system.

“The abuse at Lackland and throughout our military did not begin with this most recent scandal. And it will not end by removing three colonels,” said Nancy Parrish, founder of Protect Our Defenders, a victims advocacy group. “The military culture and broken legal system is so heavily weighted against the victim, that structural changes are required to fix this systemic crisis.”

The command change occurred one day before another instructor, Master Sgt. Jamey Crawford, goes on trial on charges of having sex with a trainee.

Retired generals, the fifth chief master sergeant of the Air Force, Robert Gaylor, and area officials and civic leaders attended at the base's Gateway Club as Maj. Gen. Leonard Patrick, head of the 2nd Air Force, installed Camerer, a cargo and tanker pilot who headed an airlift wing at Dover AFB, Del., as the new commander.

“It's a big job, a tough job,” Patrick, a former 37th Training Wing commander, was quoted as saying in an Air Force public affairs story. “Eric spent nights, weekends and holidays working the job. He was a great wingman.”

08/11/2012

An Air Force colonel was relieved of his command Friday amid a growing sex scandal involving basic training instructors and recruits at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.

Col. Glenn Palmer lost command of the 737th Training Group, which trains more than 35,000 airmen a year at Lackland.

He was removed by Col. Eric Axelbank, commander of the 37th Training Wing at Lackland.

The San Antonio Express-News was told Axelbank “lost confidence” in Palmer, a point man in the base's efforts to identify and remove instructors who may have been involved in sexual relationships with recruits, many of them in basic training.

He also has worked to protect recruits from similar incidents.

Palmer is the second Lackland commander to be relieved in a scandal that has seen 15 instructors fall under investigation.

Lt. Col. Mike Paquette lost his job June 20 as commander of the 331st Training Squadron after Axelbank also lost confidence in his continued leadership. The Air Force has listed 38 trainees as victims.

Axelbank, the wing's commander for just over a year, will leave his command for a Pentagon job Sept. 4.

Colleen McGee, a spokeswoman for the 37th Training Wing, said Axelbank is not being forced out as a result of the scandal.

“Changes of command happen in leadership sometimes in one year, sometimes in two years,” she said. “There's not a set time on when they change.”

07/29/2012

The 20-year prison sentence given to Staff Sgt. Luis A. Walker, the Air Force instructor at the center of a sweeping basic training scandal, could have been tougher.

Jurors had the chance to hand him life without parole for his conviction on offenses involving 10 female trainees, including rape and aggravated sexual assault.

In delivering the shorter sentence last week, the military jury at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland made it possible for Walker, 26, to re-enter society in as soon as six years.

For retired Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jennifer Norris, a military sexual trauma victim and advocate, the sentence is “a slap in the face” of Walker's victims.

“If you think about it in terms of justice, 20 years equals two years for each victim,” said Norris. “If he gets out on good behavior, he could be out in 10 or less. That equals maybe six months to one year per victim.”

07/27/2012

The Air Force has added three boot camp instructors to its list of 12 under investigation for misconduct, as well as seven new victims, commanders said Thursday.

The instructors weren't identified and the nature of the allegations was not explained. But the Air Education and Training Command reported that the new cases brought the number of victims in a sex scandal at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland to 38.

Around 500 basic training instructors work on the base.

“We've always known this is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Nancy Parrish, founder of Protect Our Defenders, a group that supports sexual trauma victims in the military. “In all likelihood we are just beginning to document how horrible this problem really is.”

The latest development comes amid multiple investigations looking at not only possible instructor misconduct, but also the possibility of command climate problems that fueled the illegal activity.

Saturday, former trainer Luis A. Walker was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being found guilty on seven charges and 28 specifications of misconduct. He had faced a maximum of life without the possibility of parole. He'll instead be eligible for release after serving six years.

He was charged with having illicit relationships with 10 women, all of them in basic training and some in the units that he oversaw.

Until now, instructor misconduct had been found in three of Lackland's eight basic training squadrons, with a number of incidents in one of them. But investigators now have found evidence of misconduct in five squadrons.

The wife of Luis A. Walker, who was convicted this week of sexual offenses with 10 trainees, says people are wrong about her man.

The former boot camp trainer at the center of an Air Force sex scandal isn't a rapist or a sexual predator, Yeimi Walker said. He doesn't belong behind bars or on a sex offender registry, she said. He should be on the job.

For reasons she can't fathom, 10 women lied about her teenage sweetheart, who triumphed over a bad neighborhood in the Brooklyn borough of New York and fulfilled his dream of being in the Air Force.

“I don't understand why it's happening. I just know that I believe him 100 percent, and I believe they put an innocent man in jail,” Walker said, describing her husband as a dedicated father and NCO who loved the uniform. “I'm still in shock. I don't know how this happened, how this came about.”

Days after a military jury at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland convicted Walker on all counts and gave him 20 years in prison, his wife said she understands the Air Force has a problem. Her husband's case is the biggest of six in which instructors face sexual misconduct charges.

But Walker, whose name is pronounced as “Jay-me,” is baffled that he came out on the losing end of a trial that she said had no evidence — no DNA, no eyewitnesses, videotapes or written records. It doesn't seem possible the Air Force would railroad an innocent man, she said, but media coverage and the witnesses hurt badly.

“I may be biased, but these women were caught in lies and they just let it be,” Walker, 25, said. “My husband did not get a fair trial, and I think the military is trying to prove a point. They're trying to make an example out of him.”